The invention relates generally to tiles for body armor. In particular, the invention relates to interlocking tiles to provide protection from small arms fire with improved flexibility.
During combat and insurgency patrol, military personnel can be subject to small-arms fire from gun-fired projectile rounds, as well as blast and fragmentation from grenades, designed to attack flesh. Personnel struck by such weapons can suffer serious or even mortal injury. To reduce vulnerability to combatants from such lethal contacts, wearable personnel armor, such as a vest with resistant-fiber mesh, has been developed. Further improvements have integrated high strength intermediary materials to further absorb or deflect kinetic impacts. Such measures have added weight and reduced flexibility for personnel so clad.
Conventional tactical body armor within the United States armed forces consists of small arms protective insert (SAPI) and Enhanced SAPI (ESAPI) ceramic trauma plates. The plates vary in performance where the SAPI plates are capable of defeating M80 ball rounds and the ESAPI is capable of defeating 0.30 caliber M2AP rounds. The plates are inserted within an interceptor vest which is capable of stopping 9 mm×19 mm handgun bullets. Conventional ESAPI/SAPI plates are comparatively large and bulky, and additionally limit flexibility of the wearer.